Stock rally accelerates after he says that he’d ramp up economic stimulus in European Union, if needed.

By Randall W. Forsyth

What does Donald Trump know that Mario Draghi seemed to have forgotten for a time?

The front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination holds that position in large part because of his ability to get his message across. And, according to a recent analysis in the Boston Globe, that may be because his message is delivered in language simple enough for a fourth-grader to understand.

In an age of 140-character tweets and 10-second sound bites, simpler is better than the “highfalutin” language used by the laggards in the GOP and Democrat races, according to the Globe’s quantitative analysis of the readability of the candidates’ word choice and sentence structure.

Although he’s a neurosurgeon, Dr. Ben Carson communicates at a sixth-grade level, while Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are at an eighth-grade level. Hillary Clinton, the Democrat front-runner, scores in the seventh-grade range. But her closest challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders, speaks at a 10th-grade level, at the high end of the candidates, as does former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who trails the GOP field. Clearly, lower is better.

This should serve as an example for financial professionals, according to Susan Weiner, a chartered financial analyst, who offered her advice on her Website investmentwriting.com: “If you want to attract and retain readers, lower the grade level of your writing.”

Most financial writing is aimed at readers with an educational attainment above the 12th grade—high school graduates and those with some college—which “may be too high for audiences with short attention spans.” To rectify this shortcoming, she suggests using www.hemingwayapp.com, which rates your writing for complexity and highlights sentences that might challenge readers’ erudition or lack of it. Indeed, it urges you to avoid long sentences (such as the previous one.) So, it should come as no surprise that my most recent column on Barrons.com was deemed to be at a 14th grade, or college, level—clearly unacceptable by current standards.

Draghi last week seemed to have forgotten that lesson in clear, direct communication. The European Central Bank president will be forever known for his simple yet dramatic declaration in 2012 to “do whatever it takes” to save the euro. Despite crises in Greece and Cyprus, and persistently high unemployment on most of the Continent, he has succeeded in that single-minded goal and gained the admiration of financial-market participants.

So much so, in fact, that Bloomberg dubbed Draghi as the world economy’s chief protector, supplanting Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen in that role. That was just before the ECB’s policy meeting Thursday, at which Draghi had been expected to announce expanded monetary stimulus.

Meanwhile, the U.S. central bank is expected to begin raising its key policy interest rate at the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting on Dec. 15-16.

Draghi did unveil a further reduction of 10 basis points (0.10 of a percentage point) in the ECB’s deposit rate paid—or more accurately, charged—to banks to park their excess cash, to negative 0.3%. In addition, the bank’s quantitative-easing program, which consists of buying 60 billion euros ($65.2 billion) of securities each month, would be extended for an additional six months, to March 2017.

His words, however, fell short of what the markets wanted to hear, notably those looking for an immediate boost to QE purchases, to perhaps €80 billion a month, or a bigger cut in the deposit rate. Whatever they expected, it wasn’t “whatever it takes” from the world economy’s putative protector.

The euro soared, bond yields on both sides of the Atlantic jumped, and stocks plunged. European government bonds were especially hard hit, with the benchmark 10-year German Bund’s yield rising 20.6 basis points, to 0.68%—a 45% increase in a single session.

In the U.S. Treasury market, the 10-year note’s yield followed suit with a 15-basis-point jump, to 2.33%. In price terms, however, the losses at the long end were especially striking. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond TLTTLT in Your ValueYour ChangeShort position exchange-traded fund (ticker: TLT) lost 2.7% Thursday—nearly twice the 1.4% drop in the SPDR S&P 500 SPY in Your ValueYour ChangeShort position ETF (SPY.)

But Mario seemed to get his magic back Friday, perhaps finding it on his trans-Atlantic flight en route to a luncheon speech to the Economics Club of New York. While he did not repeat his famous “whatever it takes” mantra, he made clear he thought that the ECB’s policies were adequate to meet the bank’s goals, if not necessarily the expectations of the markets. And if more QE were needed to meet its policy aim to lift inflation to 2%, it would be forthcoming.

In a candid response to a question from Mervyn King, the former governor of the Bank of England, who asked if his comments Friday were an attempt to undo some of the market impact from Thursday’s announcement, Draghi said, “Not really…well…of course.” Appreciative chuckles from the assembled economics and finance types ensued.

Draghi dismissed speculation that dissent among the ECB’s governing council (notably from the Germans) kept him from taking more forceful action. Dissent is normal at central banks, including the Fed, but he added that lack of unanimity isn’t a constraint on his decisions. Neither is the size of the ECB balance sheet, which can be expanded as needed to meet its objectives. “We have the power to act. We have the determination to act. We have the commitment to act,” the ECB president stated emphatically.

Those terse, declarative sentences would have done William Strunk and E.B. White proud. (Their slim Elements of Style once served as the guide to clear, effective writing, in the days before online algorithms.)

And the words did the trick.

Stocks had been in rally mode before Draghi’s midday comments, but his straight talk gave the market an added kick. The Standard & Poor’s 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average doubled their gains to wind up more than 2% on the session, their best one-day showing in nearly two and three months, respectively. That more than reversed Thursday’s losses. Clearly, Mario’s magic was back.

All of which shows that people are swayed by simple, succinct but powerful messages. More so, than by nuanced, sophisticated ones. And markets are no different.

THE WEEK’S NARRATIVE was less simplistic than Friday’s return of Super Mario to vanquish his less-than-super Thursday self. Yet central banks did dominate the story.

Stocks actually started tanking Wednesday, after Fed Chair Yellen made clear that the first hike in the federal-funds target rate since 2006 was all but certain. Of course, the FOMC’s decision next week depends on incoming data, but Friday’s news of a 211,000 rise in nonfarm payrolls for November erased any doubt about a liftoff from the 0% to 0.25% fed-funds target, which was set seven years ago this month in the depths of the financial crisis.

For the S&P 500, the slide from Wednesday’s pre-Janet peak to Thursday’s post-Mario low was about 3%. Yet, even with Friday’s stirring recovery, investors in U.S. equities ended the week down by some $100 billion, according to Wilshire Associates’ calculations. Bond investors also share the pain, and not just because of previously noted price declines in the Treasury sector, which were only partially reversed Friday.

Even against the backdrop of the equity market’s late-week rebound, junk bonds continued to slump. The SPDR Barclays High Yield Bondnk in Your ValueYour ChangeShort positionETF (JNK) hit a 52-week low Friday while the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond hyg in Your ValueYour ChangeShort positionETF (HYG) hovered just above its yearly low. Part of that reflects stress in the energy sector, exemplified by Friday’s drop in benchmark U.S. crude prices below $40 a barrel, following the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries non-decision not to cut output.

Even with the euro’s rally Thursday, Ross still sees that the dollar’s trend is higher, which puts downward pressure on oil, other commodities, currencies (including the Chinese yuan, notwithstanding its symbolic inclusion in the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights last week), and high-yield bonds. All of which he sees pressuring stocks lower in the new year.

That would be consistent with the Fed’s setting its initial hike later this month. Stocks have made virtually no progress since the central bank ended its QE in November 2014. Contrary to most Wall Street seers, Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist of Mizuho Securities USA, thinks a rate hike would be a mistake.

Yet, smart people sometimes do stupid things, he writes, as when the Bank of Japan raised rates to burst its asset bubble in the early 1990s or when the ECB hiked rates out of a misplaced inflation fear in 2011, leaving both those regions struggling with deflation. The People’s Bank of China’s sloppy handling of the stock selloff also will have negative long-term implications.

“Should the Fed make a policy mistake and hike rates, we expect the anticipated equity rally will run into a wall of selling, credit spreads will widen, the dollar will rise sharply, crude oil will break through the $40-a-barrel level [which has already happened] and the Treasury curve will flatten from both ends,” he writes.

Such a move, with higher short-term rates and lower long-term yields, is a classic portent of recession. A simple warning, likely to be unheeded.

Volume rose on the day while breadth per the WSJ was negative. Markets are getting short-term oversold (see NYMO).NYMO DAILY

The NYMO is a market breadth indicator that is based on the difference between the number of advancing and declining issues on the NYSE. When readings are +60/-60 markets are extended short term.

NYSI DAILY

The McClellan Summation Index is a long-term version of the McClellan Oscillator. It is a market breadth indicator, and interpretation is similar to that of the McClellan Oscillator, except that it is more suited to major trends. I believe readings of +1000/-1000 reveal markets as much extended.

VIX WEEKLY

The VIX is a widely used measure of market risk and is often referred to as the "investor fear gauge." Our own interpretation has changed due to a variety of new factors including HFTs, new VIX linked ETPs and a multitude of new products to leverage trading and change or obscure prior VIX relevance.

SPY 5 MINUTE

SPX DAILYSPX WEEKLY

INDU DAILY

INDU WEEKLY

RUT WEEKLY

NDX WEEKLY

XLB WEEKLY

XLE WEEKLY

XLF WEEKLY

KRE WEEKLY

XRT WEEKLY

XLI WEEKLY

ITB WEEKLY

HYG WEEKLY

TLT WEEKLY

UUP WEEKLY

FXE WEEKLY

GLD MONTHLY

GDX MONTHLY

USO MONTHLY

DBC MONTHLY

XME WEEKLY

EFA WEEKLY

EZU WEEKLY

EEM WEEKLY

Closing CommentsWednesday yields only Wholesale Trade and important Petroleum Inventories.The balance of the week isn't that rich with data. I would think markets would be tense before next Wednesday's Fed announcement.Let's see what happens.

The Islamic State is using the same strategy it deployed in Syria in order to expand its territory in North Africa. Libya has become the center of its deadly activities in the region.The cinematic staging hinted very early on at the plan. As masked men with the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia massacred 21 Egyptian Christians on a Libyan beach in February, the camera positions, lighting and editing were professional in a way that had only previously been seen in videos eminating from IS headquarters in Raqqa. Libya has become by far the Syrian-Iraqi caliphate's most important beachhead as it seeks to expand its footprint in North Africa, and there are numerous reasons for this development. Libya's disintegration into competing factions and regions provides fertile soil for the jihadists' creeping rise to power. More than 1,000 kilometers (612 miles) of coastline and uncontrolled borders in the south make for easy access to the country. Tunisians, who comprise the largest group of IS foreign fighters, established a broad network in Libya early on and often travel from here to the "caliphate."For months now, IS in Libya has been sticking eerily close to the blueprint it followed when conquering parts of Syria. First, IS units developed a wide network of spies and they are currently pursuing both long-term infiltration and conducting spectacular attacks as they expand the areas under their control. Some 2,000 IS fighters, including many Tunisians and other foreigners, are believed to be in the country. Their base is the city of Sirte, the hometown of former dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The jihadists had no trouble conquering the city, even after a failed first attempt in the traditionally Islamist city of Darna in the east. As in Syria, they use extreme brutality to underline their claim to power. After a tangle with IS in August, popular Salafist imam Khalid bin Rajab Ferjani was murdered. When his tribe rebelled, dozens were killed, including the crucifixion of at least four men in a busy traffic circle in Sirte.

'Stress Test'

Islamic State leaders are currently testing for weak spots in Misurata, Libya's third-largest city. Anas El Gomati, founder of the Libyan think tank Sadeq, calls it a "stress test." The militia is testing to see how close it can get to the city before fighters there respond. How does the city responds to minor attacks. Who is issuing the orders and where are the vulnerabilities?Abu Ali al-Anbari, a former Iraqi regime official who has for years been a member of IS core leadership, reportedly recently arrived in Libya by boat. Even back as 2013, he was already one of the three top IS officials in northern Syria and was present at important meetings, such as one with the personal envoy to al-Qaida boss Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of the Syrian Nusra Front and other rebel leaders. When asked at the time if it would be possible to meet the "caliph" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, al-Anbari demurred, saying Baghdadi didn't need to come, as he and the other IS leaders had full decision-making power.Potential Libyan victims are also repeating the same mistakes made in Syria and Iraq. One military leader from Misurata told the New York Times recently that they, too, were against the IS -- but, for the time being, they weren't fighting against them. Instead, they fear any weakening of the front against their main opponent in the Libyan civil war, General Khalifa Haftar in the east. Eventually, they say, they will begin fighting IS, but no one wanted to say for certain when that might happen.

The Kurdish intelligence chief in Iraq says Islamic State can be beaten, but U.S. troops and more weapons will be necessary.

By Sohrab Ahmari

Masrour Barzani Photo: Zina Saunders

Dohuk Province, Iraq

Kurdish intelligence chief Masrour Barzani’s forward base on the Iraqi-Syrian border isn’t easy to reach. On a bright Sunday morning, two members of his staff drive me there from Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. We race four hours around Kurdistan’s barren hills, passing numerous checkpoints, a circuitous route that avoids the tentacular territory that Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has carved out of Iraq and Syria.It is late November, and the Kurds have just severed one of those ISIS tentacles by capturing Sinjar, 15 months after the jihadist army overran the Iraqi city and forced Kurdish Peshmerga forces to beat a hasty retreat. The Kurds’ comeback at Sinjar means the main highway linking ISIS-controlled Mosul, Iraq, and the so-called caliphate’s capital in Raqqa, Syria, is now cut off. Security is tight at the base. Mr. Barzani, who heads the Security Council of the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, is dressed in fatigues, with a pistol at his waist. We sit in a trailer that serves as a conference room. A portrait of Kurdish-nationalist hero Mustafa Barzani—Mr. Barzani’s grandfather; his father is KRG President Masoud Barzani—hangs above opulent furniture with golden, rococo details that look oddly out of place. Liberated Sinjar lies 40 miles southwest. A little beyond it is an ISIS front that stretches for 650 miles.“The Kurds have broken the myth of ISIS,” says Mr. Barzani, who speaks English fluently. Including Sinjar, Peshmerga forces have retaken 7,700 square miles of territory and nearly double that if you count the successes of Syrian Kurds across the border. The Kurds’ front-line efforts combined with coalition airstrikes, Mr. Barzani says, have removed about 20,000 ISIS fighters from the battlefield.He attributes the Sinjar triumph to Western air cover, good planning and a swiftness that surprised ISIS fighters. “Excellent intelligence” also helped, Mr. Barzani adds, because it allowed the Kurds to defuse the jihadists’ main defensive barrier, a network of remotely controlled booby traps and improvised explosive devices, before it could be detonated. Military analysts had predicted days of house-to-house combat. “But it didn’t happen,” Mr. Barzani says. It was all over in 48 hours.While ISIS fighters may be inspired by a “radical, terrorist, extremist ideology,” he says, the Peshmerga go into battle with a fervor “to defend their territories and defend their people.” It was the same spirit that deterred previous attempts, by Saddam Hussein’s regime and others, to eradicate the Kurds, he says. “That has been the only reason that we as the Kurds still exist.”But Kurds alone can’t put ISIS on the path to defeat, especially with the group still able to recruit new members and acquire weapons. Defeating the jihadists will require stanching the flow of funding, arms and fighters. War needs to be carried out on the ideological front too. “If Islam doesn’t accept what ISIS is doing,” he says, “the Islamic scholars have to talk to their own people, to say ‘Islam rejects this. You cannot terrorize people.’ ” This, he adds, “is an Islamic duty—the West cannot help.”The most important factor remains geography. Islamic State’s legitimacy rests on its ability to exercise sovereignty over land. The Kurds have reclaimed much of their territory, but now the front has moved to “other parts of Iraq, and in Syria, where you don’t have such a reliable force to fight on the ground while airstrikes target the enemy,” Mr. Barzani says. That’s an implicit rebuke to the Obama White House, which says it can “degrade and destroy” ISIS without committing U.S. ground forces. The American strategy of airstrikes and special operations, Mr. Barzani says, is “very effective in terms of weakening ISIS, disabling their movements, targeting their leadership. But you can never defeat an enemy if you don’t have ground forces.” And contrary to Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz, the Kurds can’t serve as “our troops on the ground”—at least not outside their traditional territories.Consider Mosul. The second-largest city in Iraq, today it remains under ISIS control. Mosul lies just 50 miles west of Erbil, and were it not for coalition airstrikes that came in the nick of time last year, the Kurds’ vibrant capital would almost certainly have fallen to ISIS as well.Today Peshmerga surround Mosul. Kurds have pledged to help dislodge ISIS from the city, but they can’t spearhead the operation. The majority of Mosul’s 1.5 million people are Sunni Arabs, the core ISIS constituency. The Kurds think it’s up to the Iraqi central government in Baghdad and the coalition to take the lead on Mosul. The job calls for a “liberating force, not a force that can create sensitivities in that community,” Mr. Barzani says. That is, a Shiite-dominated Baghdad must win the trust of Sunnis and encourage them to rise against ISIS. That’s a tall order for an Iraqi government increasingly under Iran’s thumb, and dependent on Shiite militias whose preferred counterinsurgency methods are burning Sunni villages and drilling Sunni skulls with power tools.It doesn’t help that Washington has for years tolerated Baghdad’s ethnic and sectarian chauvinism, an indulgence that even colors U.S. military support for the Kurds. The Obama administration, bowing to Baghdad’s demands, insists that arms shipments intended for Kurdish forces be routed through the capital, despite the near-complete breakdown in relations between the Kurds and the central government.‘We haven’t received the kind of equipment we want or the amount we need,” Mr. Barzani says. Ammunition shortages are sometimes acute, and many of the Iraqi Kurds’ heavier weapons are antiques wrested years ago from Saddam Hussein’s regime. ISIS, by contrast, fields 12 divisions’ worth of armored vehicles and heavy equipment, Mr. Barzani says, much of it originally supplied by the U.S. to the post-Saddam Iraqi army and later captured by the jihadists.One Washington argument against directly arming the Kurds is that the Peshmerga aren’t a professional army but a citizen militia with units that pledge allegiance to Kurdish political parties rather than to the Kurdish government. Mr. Barzani bristles at this: “Peshmerga to us is the honor of our nation. America after the fall of Saddam trained a professional Iraqi army for 10 years and spent billions of dollars. They couldn’t withstand ISIS for 10 days. . . . You tell me which is a professional force, Peshmerga or the Iraqi army?”Fourteen Peshmerga brigades, of about 2,500 soldiers each, have already been integrated under a Kurdish Ministry of Peshmerga, but reform takes time, and defending the homeland from the world’s deadliest terror outfit takes precedence. “Please do not tell us that this is the reason,” Mr. Barzani says. “It’s a political decision that so far they haven’t supported the Peshmerga in the way that they need and deserve to be supported.” The Kurds, he notes, are fighting the West’s fight. “We are giving blood. We are giving flesh. We are giving lives, which are much more valuable than any weapons system. . . . To help us win this war, you—the world, the West, the United States—must provide us with better weapons.” Advanced tanks, medical-evacuation helicopters and vehicles resistant to roadside bombs would be a good start. (A U.S. package that includes some of these systems is on its way, Peshmerga officials told Kurdish media on Wednesday.)The Obama administration also won’t transfer arms directly to the Kurds because it is averse to doing anything that might jeopardize a unified, federal Iraq—even after the rise of ISIS revealed Iraq to be something of a geographic fiction. How sovereign is a state, after all, whose armed forces have lost control of its borders and can’t enter vast swaths of nominally Iraqi territory, including the Kurdish autonomous zone and ISIS-held territory?“The biggest problem is to run away from reality and work with illusions,” Mr. Barzani says. “Iraq is a fabricated state that has failed. It has always been a failure. It exists on the map. On the map, it has some borders, but these borders weren’t drawn naturally.” The Iraq created in the World War I peace settlement lasted nearly a century, with Sunnis lording over Shiites, Kurds and other groups for much of that time. The trouble, Mr. Barzani says, was that “people living in this country have never had a common ground.” Once Saddam was gone, Sunnis and Shiites sought vengeance, and sectarian terror escalated once Mr. Obama hastily withdrew U.S. troops in 2011. Syria’s furies arrived in Iraq soon after.The Kurds took better advantage of the post-Saddam moment. Having attained autonomy with the help of a no-fly zone after the 1991 Gulf War, the Kurds built new democratic institutions and fortified existing ones following the 2003 U.S. invasion. Kurdish democracy isn’t perfect, but Kurdish society is free in ways unimaginable in most of the region. Iraqi Kurdistan welcomes foreign investors, and it has trod a pragmatic path in its relations with neighboring powers like Iran and Turkey. Most important, Iraqi Kurds have proved themselves reliable Western allies, most recently in the anti-ISIS struggle. “In this entire area the Kurds are probably the most pro-American people that you can find,” Mr. Barzani says. “Forever we will be thankful for the U.S. support since the day of toppling Saddam’s regime.” Sooner or later, ISIS will cease to exist, or else the future is even bleaker than it now appears. When that time comes, the various communities in Syria and Iraq, U.S. friends and foes alike, will ask where they belong on the new map. It’s better, then, to see today’s tectonic shifts as an opportunity to revisit the old Mideast configuration. For Mr. Barzani that means Kurdish independence and what he hopes will be an amicable divorce from Baghdad.“Why does every nation on earth have the right to be independent, to have self-determination, except Kurds?” he asks. “Is this justice? Is this what the world wants?” The Turks and the Iranians each have their own state, while the Arabs have 22. “So why cannot the Kurds have one? We’re not asking for any more, and we won’t settle for any less. It will happen.” He adds: “It doesn’t have to be by fighting.”The Peshmerga, meanwhile, steel themselves for Islamic State’s next move. Since the Sinjar victory the jihadists have been testing the Kurds’ defenses, assaulting perceived weak points. So far, the attacks have been repelled, but ISIS has many fighters and operates with a murderous unpredictability. “Where they counterattack doesn’t have to be in Sinjar,” Mr. Barzani says. “It can be anywhere.”It could even be in London, New York or San Bernardino.Mr. Ahmari is a Journal editorial writer based in London.

- From falling corporate profits, to plunging commodities, to a contracting manufacturing sector, to rising bond spreads and much more, there is no doubt a slowdown has begun.

- Despite the slowdown, there are and will continue to be investing opportunities across various asset classes.

If it walks like a recession and talks like a recession, well . . . don't call it a "recession."Prior to 1937, there were two primary ways the public referred to economic slowdowns: (1) as a "depression," and (2) as the "Panic of [enter year]." Most everyone has heard about the Great Depression. But have you heard about the Depression of 1920/21 or the Panic of 1907? It was only after the worst of the Great Depression, a period of economic calamity so severe that it profoundly affected the psyche of the American public in long-lasting ways, that the word "depression" was replaced with "recession."The use of specific words can have a profound effect on people's psyche and outlook on life. This is no secret to those who seek to influence the citizenry at large, including those within the financial industry who seek to promote certain narratives at the expense of others. Given the devastating effect the Great Depression had on the American psyche, it is no wonder that beginning with the "recession within the depression", people began to refer to downturns in a different way. The recession of 1937/38 kicked off a new era of describing economic downturns, an era that lasted right up to the Great Recession of 2008/09.Nowadays, with (1) the U.S. still stuck in a hangover from the Great Recession, unable to break out economically, the way the country has in prior recovery periods, and (2) politicians, economists, and investing pundits seemingly unable to even utter the word "recession", lest the public conjure up memories of the horrors of late 2008 and early 2009, it's clear the mainstream media is in desperate need of a word to describe today's early "recession-like" environment.Today's environment walks like a recession, and it talks like a recession. I won't call it a recession, lest I offend the multitudes trying desperately to erase from memory the events of the Great Recession. But make no doubt about it. The charts that follow, as a collective group, paint a picture that is screaming "recession".

The Recession-Like Economic Picture

There are so many places I could begin to show the deterioration in the U.S. economy. I'd like to start with the mother's milk of stocks: corporate profits. You certainly wouldn't know this is you just followed the price of the S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY), or if you listened to the constant mainstream-media drivel about earnings growth, but over the past four years, S&P 500 operating earnings have grown at a compounded annual rate of just 1.95%. In fact, as the chart below shows, earnings peaked in Q3 2014 at $114.51 and have since fallen 9.01% to $104.19. With earnings down double digits, one might expect the major market averages to have gotten crushed. And that expectation would have been wrong. Rather than falling in sympathy with earnings, the S&P 500 has actually risen a few percent since the end of Q3 2014.

Yes, the energy sector has been a big contributor to the decline. But unfortunately for those index investors who want to stick their heads in the sand, the energy sector (NYSEARCA:XLE) is a very real part of the S&P 500. Furthermore, it's important to note that in addition to energy, consumer staples (NYSEARCA:XLP), materials (NYSEARCA:XLB), and utilities (NYSEARCA:XLU) are showing year-over-year earnings declines through Q3 2015.For those readers hoping for a more pure look at corporate profits, the charts that follow should suffice. Whether you prefer to look at corporate profits after tax with or without inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments, the picture is one ranging from stagnation to an early recessionary environment.

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Moving along, when it comes to commodities, oil (NYSEARCA:USO) grabs many of the headlines. But oil isn't the only commodity in free fall. The entire commodity complex has been getting crushed for quite some time, a sign that global supply/demand dynamics are quite out of whack. In addition to oil, natural gas (NYSEARCA:UNG), gasoline (NYSEARCA:UGA), iron ore, steel (NYSEARCA:SLX), copper (NYSEARCA:JJC), soybeans (NYSEARCA:SOYB), wheat (NYSEARCA:WEAT), corn (NYSEARCA:CORN), aluminum (NYSEARCA:JJU), zinc, nickel (NYSEARCA:JJN), gold (NYSEARCA:GLD), silver (NYSEARCA:SLV), sugar (NYSEARCA:SGG) cotton (NYSEARCA:BAL), lean hogs (NYSEARCA:COW), feeder cattle, and lumber (NYSEARCA:CUT) have all gotten crushed in recent years. A chart of the Bloomberg Commodity Index (below) nicely illustrates the carnage in commodities.

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The U.S. economy cannot escape and is not escaping the, dare I say, depression that has befallen the world of commodities. Plunging commodity prices are negatively affecting American companies, American jobs, American families, and U.S. state budgets.Given falling earnings and plunging commodities, it shouldn't surprise anyone to see consumer prices flirting with deflation and producer prices recently crossing into deflationary territory. It's almost comical that the "data dependent" Fed is so serious about raising rates later this month given the outright deterioration in the economic picture.

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As you will notice in the CPI chart above, the year-over-year change in consumer prices is at levels only rarely reached in the post-WWII era. As eager as I am to see interest rates rise, it's worth mentioning that a truly "data dependent" Fed wouldn't raise rates at this time. If, however, the Fed decides to throw caution to the wind, it will be the first time since the spring of 1987 that the Fed has hiked rates while S&P 500 earnings are falling (source).In terms of producer prices, as the charts below illustrate, it's not just the manufacturing sector experiencing declining prices. Retail trade industries recently followed suit.

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The fact that retail trade is now experiencing year-over-year price declines only further adds to the recessionary-like environment now gripping the U.S.In addition to CPI and PPI, import and export prices also fail to inspire an economic-growth narrative. Not surprisingly, given the complete obliteration of commodity prices, the charts below clearly illustrate, whether one includes or excludes petroleum, that prices are falling fast.

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If you're still not convinced U.S. economy is slowing, there are several more charts that scream recession.First, industrial production. As the chart that follows shows, industrial production is on the verge of year-over-year declines, levels typical of a recession. Moreover, capacity utilization is currently at 77.5%, below the 1972 to 2014 average of 80.1%.

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Next up, inventory-to-sales. There is no doubt that the pace of the rise of the inventories-to-sales ratio is screaming "recession ahead."

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Turning to manufacturing, the value of new orders for all manufacturing industries is now in steep decline, matching levels indicative of a recession (see chart below).

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Furthermore, the November 2015 Manufacturing ISM Report On Business showed the manufacturing sector is now contracting, falling below the all-important 50 level to the lowest level since June 2009.

While it is true that the ISM non-manufacturing report is still at a solid 55.9, its recent massive miss to expectations, coupled with its recently touching the lowest level since May should leave some wondering whether the troubles in manufacturing are now spreading elsewhere.

Thus far, I've covered corporate profits, commodities, CPI, PPI, export and import prices, industrial production, inventories-to-sales, and manufacturing, all of which collectively point to a recessionary environment. I have four more charts that, while on their own, do not necessarily signal a recession, when viewed in light of everything else I've presented, add to the narrative of the U.S. economy being in a slowdown one could characterize as a recession.Those who followed my commentaries over the years know I have a special place in my heart for income-producing assets. This includes bonds. Below you will find a chart of high-yield bond spreads. Typically, rising spreads in the world of junk bonds are a canary in the coal mine for the broader economy. As the chart below clearly shows, high yield spreads began moving notably higher prior to each of the two previous recessions. I suspect this time will not be different.

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Even though spreads are not yet at levels indicative of a recession, spreads have moved notably higher since the summer of 2014. As someone who is active in the bond market, I can tell you first-hand that it's not just commodity-related companies experiencing spread widening. There is, to varying degrees, across-the-board spread widening occurring. Those on recession-watch should pay close attention to future movements in this part of the bond market.The second of the final four charts is average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory employees. As you will notice, each of the past seven recessions have begun with average hourly earnings growing at faster rates than today. In other words, from a historical perspective, the current tepid growth in wages is already recession-like.

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Given the pace of technological advancements, a plunging labor force participation rate, and the widespread emphasis on cost-cutting permeating C-Suites across the country, there is little reason to believe the wage picture, as a whole, will improve dramatically in the coming months.The penultimate chart is a recent favorite of mine. My article "A Brand New Way To Track The Labor Market," discusses its construction in detail. But for the purpose of this article, let me simply say that the Labor Market Conditions Index (chart below) is a useful indicator for predicting recessions. While it doesn't necessarily mean there will be a recession if the LMCI drops below zero, it is worth noting that each of the last five recessions, dating back to the beginning of the data set, were preceded by the LMCI dropping below zero.

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Currently, the index sits at 1.6, with an update due early next week. Even though economic optimists will point to low levels of jobless claims and the low unemployment rate as indicative of a healthy labor market, this index, which dives much deeper into the analysis of the labor market, is painting a different picture. Given the LMCI is down notably from year-ago levels and sitting just above zero, it deserves extra attention moving forward.As an aside related to the labor market, it's also worth noting that with one month to go in 2015, the Challenger, Gray & Christmas layoff report is on pace to finish the year with the highest number of layoff announcements since 2009.Last but certainly not least are two charts that many may be surprised to see included in this commentary. The first chart that follows shows nominal GDP (not adjusted for inflation) in the post-WWII era. As you will notice, there has been a clearly defined slowing of U.S. economic growth since the late 1970s, with lower highs and lower lows in nominal GDP. In fact, nominal GDP growth as slow as it is today has been associated with recessions dating back to the early 1970s.

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On a "real" GDP basis (adjusted for inflation), the picture is slightly better. With that said, one can clearly see just how bad the post-financial-crisis recovery has been.

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Investment ImplicationsWhat are the investment implications of the recession-like economic picture outlined above? As the following December 3, 2015 Yahoo Finance headline would have some believe, bad news is "Good news!"

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I, however, like to be a lot more prudent in my investing decisions than simply hoping that things have gotten so bad they can only get better from here. In the following paragraphs, I would like to touch on the various asset classes in which I am invested and share insights about how one might navigate the tricky investing environment in which we currently live.

Private Equity

In recent months, there has been no shortage of discussions concerning unicorns (startups/private companies valued at $1 billion or more) and the rich valuations that have spread across the private equity space. I have reviewed dozens of opportunities in the private equity space this year, adding just two new investments. As the year has progressed, I've noticed both deal terms and valuations reaching levels indicative of too much liquidity chasing too few opportunities. Put differently, there are definitely bubble-like characteristics in the private-equity space.As such, my threshold for making new investments has gone up dramatically. In the world of private equity (an illiquid asset class), when the tide goes out, it goes out fast and funding dries up quickly.My investing philosophy has now shifted from a focus on finding new opportunities to a focus on financially supporting my "winners." When evidence of a slowing economy begins to mount, it's important for startup CEOs to have the foresight to build up their cash coffers, thereby allowing them sufficient cushion to continue their growth path during challenging economic times.

Treasuries

I am of the opinion that every well-diversified portfolio should include some exposure to U.S. Treasuries (NYSEARCA:TLT). The exact percentage and maturities will depend on your individual circumstances.The extremely liquid nature of and historical price behavior of Treasuries during challenging economic times are such that they not only help smooth out returns but also prevent investors needing liquidity from having to sell illiquid assets at unfavorable prices.

Corporate BondsEarlier this year, I reduced risk in my portfolio's individual bond allocation, with much attention focused on the non-investment grade portion of my allocation. Even though large swaths of the junk bond market have gotten crushed as the year progressed (some might be tempted to buy the dip), I am still being extremely selective in putting new money to work. There are select opportunities in the double-B space and select opportunities in the investment grade space. But the threat of a reversal in the Fed's ultra-easy monetary policy combined with rising corporate spreads means investors should shy away from bond funds and remain focused on higher-quality (a relative term) single-bond selection.A few weeks ago, I highlighted one such opportunity in Molson Coors (NYSE:TAP), when it's long-dated bond was yielding 5.895%. The bond has since rallied from 87.57 to 99.717, sending the yield plummeting to 5.019%. It's a good example of how regardless of what Treasuries are doing, one can find opportunities in corporate bonds.There are currently other such opportunities among non-commodity-related bonds and perhaps I will highlight a few in the future. For the time being, however, let me end this brief discussion of corporate bonds with the following insight:I view today's carnage in commodity-related corporate bonds as a far worse opportunity then that during the Great Recession. It is for that reason that I dramatically reduced risk in my corporate bond allocation earlier this year. The problem is this: when a downturn such as that in commodities lasts for as long as it has (measured in years rather than months), companies that get priced out of the bond market (meaning yields on their bonds are so high they can't refinance debt) will have to issue secured debt (thereby subordinating unsecured debt), draw down lines of credit, or default. In 2008/09, the plunge and recovery happened so fast that many companies were able to ride out the declines. This time is notably different. It's the long, drawn-out nature of the current decline, with no end in sight, that makes the situation so precarious for so many commodity-related companies.

Preferred Stocks

The year to buy preferred stocks (NYSEARCA:PFF) was 2013. In my opinion, they are definitely not a "buy" in today's environment. I took profits in some of my preferreds earlier this year and the rest I could part with at any time.In case you're not familiar with the world of preferred stocks, they sit above common stock and below bonds on the capital structure. Should you search for preferreds to add to your portfolio, you'll likely come across the preferreds of many banks, REITs, and utilities. They dominate the asset class. Given the highly cyclical nature of banks and REITs, and the high debt burdens of utilities, recessions can be quite bad for those types of companies, and, consequently, their preferreds. Add to that the low-coupon preferreds issued during the past several years (thanks, Fed!) as well as the high durations associated with preferreds, and you have a security better purchased earlier in an economic cycle or after a large run-up in benchmark Treasury yields (like in 2013). Neither of those two environments describes today.

Precious Metals

Similar to Treasuries, I am of the opinion that every properly-diversified portfolio should have exposure to the one store of value that has stood the test of time: gold . Fiat-money systems have a history of failing. I have no idea whether today's system will outlive me. Rather than guessing or hoping, I simply hedge my assets by owning a store of value that has a history of being convertible into whatever fiat currency comes along.Gold, in dollar terms, is trading at multi-year lows. If you've been holding off hedging your assets with history's ultimate store of value, now seems like a good time to purchase half an allocation. Given the upcoming highly-anticipated Fed meeting later this month, it is likely gold will move strongly up or down after the Fed's announcement. You could roll the dice and wait, or buy half now and the other half after the announcement. If I were on the verge of initiating an allocation to gold, I'd favor buying half now and half later.

Commercial Real EstateAt this point in the cycle, I wouldn't touch the common stock of REITs (NYSEARCA:IYR) with a 10-foot pole. I do have a notable position in various physical apartment complexes (across numerous partnerships) and will continue to allocate money in that direction throughout the economic cycle.If you have access to private deals, don't forget the importance of staying focused on terms of seven years or more (the longer the better) with high occupancy rates in good locations (rising populations, no excessive supply coming to market, etc.), no more than 75% to 80% loan-to-value, and minimal upcoming maintenance requirements. Patience is key when searching for solid long-term investments in commercial real estate. The influx of foreign money and new investors (driven to real estate by geopolitical risks abroad and the Fed's excessively-easy monetary policy) has pushed cap rates to ridiculously low levels throughout the country (but especially on the coasts). If you invest in this environment, you need to make sure your holding period (and mortgage term) is long enough to wait out a rise in cap rates.On a final note, at this point in the economic cycle, I wouldn't be putting new money to work in any ground-up opportunities or in non-multi-family physical real estate, such as in industrial, retail, or office.

Public Stocks

I saved everyone's favorite for last. What about public stocks? Back in May, I sold all my individual stocks (representing the overwhelming majority of my equity allocation) and held on to my index funds. While I did add to my index fund allocation during the August sell-off, I think stocks are so overvalued at current levels that I could only imagine desperate investors or special situations being the impetus for an equity purchase today.At the time of this writing, the S&P 500 is trading just shy of 20 on a trailing 12-month P/E basis, and forward earnings estimates have proved to be so incredibly unreliable in recent months so as to render them completely useless. With that in mind, I think it's reasonably safe to say that an allocation split equally between quality corporate bonds held to maturity and physical multi-family real estate (as outlined above . . . staying away from the coasts) will not just beat but crush the performance of the S&P 500 in the years to come.In addition to the insanely valued broad-market indices, it's worth noting the mockery of serious fundamental analysis the Fed has created by allowing interest rates to remain so low for so long. The "bad news is good news" mantra that permeates the world of index investing has grown so loud in recent weeks that it should be borderline offensive to anyone who takes seriously the idea that rising stock prices are somehow related to a strong economy. They aren't. Instead, rising stock prices are related to easy-money. Money printing has a history of leading to higher asset prices. The only question now is how bad the hangover will be when the high wears off.

Conclusión

There can be little doubt the U.S. economy is in the midst of a notable slowdown. In fact, as I have outlined throughout this commentary, the U.S. economy appears to be staring a recession in the face. Investment implications will vary based on how policymakers respond to the situation at hand. Regardless of what they do, however, there currently are and will continue to be investment opportunities across various asset classes. I hope my insights that followed the economic commentary will be helpful, as you decide how best to allocate your funds in the coming weeks and months.Good luck and all the best in 2016!

If you know the other and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

Sun Tzu

We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.